Wal-Mart to add more superstore medical clinics

You can get your hair done, your photo taken and have that nasty chest cough examined — all in the same place you buy bread and T-shirts.

In another example of trying to become “a one-stop shop,” Wal-Mart Canada Corp. says it’s adding more medical clinics to its supercentres.

Dr. Macky Chan is seen in the waiting room of CMC Medical Centre located inside the Walmart at Steeles and Markham Road. The clinic offers patients a handheld buzzer so they can shop while they wait for their appointment if they prefer. (April 28, 2011) TARA WALTON/TORONTO STAR

The retail giant isn’t the first to lease space in its stores to groups of doctors. Loblaw Cos. Ltd. began opening medical clinics in its stores eight years ago and now has 95 of them. Shoppers Drug Mart has 250 medical clinics in or near its stores.

Wal-Mart has just 19, so far.

But the retail goliath’s plans to ramp up the rollout could raise the stakes for other players, particularly in the wake of recent cuts in government funding for generic drug plans.

The cuts have hit pharmacies hard, especially in Ontario. Shoppers’ profit and sales both declined after the province said it would cut in half the amount it pays for generic drugs for people on government plans.

Both Wal-Mart and Loblaw have begun pushing for a greater share of the pharmacy market.

But while the presence of a medical clinic in a store can boost pharmacy sales, food and general merchandise retailers say that’s not the main reason they’re adding them.

Along with the hair salons, McDonald’s restaurants and lottery booths, Wal-Mart says the idea is to make life more convenient for its customers.

“We provide a service that saves the customer an additional trip they may be making after they come to a Wal-Mart store either for grocery or merchandise,” said Ross Thompson, Wal-Mart’s director of licensee operations. “Also, we like to provide a service that will bring the customer back.”

Both Wal-Mart and Loblaw issue patients with pagers that allow them to shop the rest of the store while waiting to be seen by a doctor.

Patients say they like the fact the clinics take walk-in patients and are located in clean, well-run facilities.

Paul Winton was one of about 15 people lined up at the clinic inside the Loblaw-owned Real Canadian Superstore at Don Mills and Eglinton on Thursday morning.

The “40-ish” Winton, who lives near the store, said he’d hurt his leg playing lacrosse the previous evening.

He’d called his family doctor but was told the first available appointment was Saturday. He decided he couldn’t afford to wait.

“He can’t go around limping for two days,” said his wife, Carol. “We think maybe he has a tear in the muscle.”

“I just want to be referred for x-rays,” he said.

There are other walk-in clinics in the area, Carol said, but she wouldn’t go to them. They don’t look good, she explained.

Industry experts say large retailers are looking for ways to meet consumer demand for convenience while adding new categories of product or service that fit with their brand.

“Consumers are much more pressed for time,” said Chris Daniel, lead author of Emerging Trends in Grocery Retailing, a report for Ryerson University’s Centre for the Study of Commercial Activity. “When retailers want to expand their business, whatever other convenience services they can offer without damaging their brand identity is going to be a benefit from them.”

Wal-Mart began adding the clinics three years ago and now has 19 across the country. But it plans to pick up the pace with plans to add 13 more this year, mainly in the larger supercentres where it sells fresh food as well as general merchandise.

“There’s a need out there in the marketplace,” Thompson said, noting many new immigrants don’t have a family doctor.

Still, Wal-Mart has some catching up to do.

Loblaw said it began quietly adding medical clinics to its largest stores in 2003, mainly as a convenience to customers.

They’re also part of Loblaw’s wider “health and wellness strategy” along with its exclusive “Blue Menu” line of better-for-you products, Natural Value health food departments, cooking classes and Good Life Fitness centres.

“What we’re trying to do is empower customers to make healthier choices,” said Michael Lovsin, Loblaw’s senior vice-president, health and wellness.

Clinics in retail settings are similar to doctor’s offices anywhere in some respects. They bill OHIP for their services and pay their administrative and other expenses out of the billings.

But in other ways they’re quite different.

Clinics in retail settings see a lot more “walk-in” patients than a typical family physician’s practice. And they tend to be run by third party professional management firm that buys the equipment, hires the administrative staff and oversees the billing.

The doctors pay for those services either on a percentage or flat fee basis.

Wal-Mart uses Jack Nathan Health, whose parent company is a supplier of wall decor to the retailer. Loblaw uses Primacy.

The retailer generally acts as the landlord to the clinics.

Doctors who join this type of clinic are often recent graduates looking to build a practice without incurring a lot of debt.

Or they may be emergency room doctors nearing retirement. Or they may have their own full-time practice elsewhere and be looking for extra hours with minimal paper burden. Walk-in clinics don’t require the same level of long-term record-keeping as a family practice.

Shoppers Drug Mart pioneered the concept, opening its first medical clinic in 2002. It now operates 250 across the country, also mainly as a convenience to customers.

The clinics, located in, above or beside its drug stores, offer both walk-in and family practice services, the drugstore chain said.

“We do see an increase in pharmacy sales,” said Shoppers’ spokeswoman Lisa Gibson, adding the close contact between the doctor and pharmacist also leads to “enhanced patient care.”